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Simon Kuper

Life & Arts Columnist

Simon Kuper joined the Financial Times in 1994. He wrote the daily currencies column, before leaving the FT in 1998. He returned in 2002 as a sports columnist and has been there ever since. Nowadays he writes a general column for the Weekend FT on all manner of topics from politics to books, and on cities including London, Paris, Johannesburg and Miami.

Email Simon Kuper @KuperSimon  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)
  • Thursday, 3 October, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Why I stopped making election forecasts

    The shocks of recent times have shown the rational voter is a myth

    Illustration showing two contrasting voting booths: one minimalist and grey, the other bright and adorned with American flag colours and stars, with a hand casting a ballot
  • Thursday, 26 September, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    After the strongman

    What happens when a personalist regime inevitably falls

  • Thursday, 19 September, 2024
    Life & Arts
    Musk, Thiel and the shadow of apartheid South Africa

    The parallels between South Africa then and the US today are striking

    Illustration of a red bench labelled ‘MAGA ONLY’ on a green background
  • Thursday, 12 September, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Serious Starmer leads a Roundhead revival

    Categorising him as left or right ignores the prime minister’s distinctively puritan streak

    An illustration depicting Keir Starmer dressed as a Roundhead, against a pale-green background
  • Thursday, 5 September, 2024
    FT MagazineParis Olympics
    How the Olympics changed Paris 

    The city’s mood has shifted from disaster mitigation to opportunity

  • Thursday, 15 August, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    How taking a holiday went global

    More people have acquired the means to experience the life-altering effects of a vacation

  • Friday, 9 August, 2024
    The Weekend Essay
    How to read a riot

    Violence on British streets has reopened an age-old debate about what drives disorder — and what can be done about it

    A group of men are gathered on a grassy area, holding planks and sticks. Some are draped in England flags, one waves a union jack and many are filming with phones
  • Thursday, 8 August, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    What the Olympic medal table really tells us

    The list of winning countries is much more than just a guide to sporting achievement

  • Saturday, 3 August, 2024
    InterviewFT Magazine
    How Roger Federer rode the ‘beautiful wave’ of tennis for 24 years

    The court legend on rivalry, reinvention and regret

  • Thursday, 25 July, 2024
    FT MagazinePolitics
    A tale of three very different elections

    We’ve got a rare opportunity to compare the UK, US and French systems. What have we learnt?

  • Thursday, 18 July, 2024
    Paris Olympics
    The Paris Olympics will be political. That’s a good thing

    For some athletes the podium can be a platform

  • Sunday, 14 July, 2024
    Uefa Men's European championship
    Spanish teamwork exposes England’s lack of co-ordination

    La Roja’s well-drilled pressing game exposed limitations of Gareth Southgate’s team

    Spain’s Lamine Yamal celebrates
  • Saturday, 13 July, 2024
    The Weekend Essay
    Paris, the Olympics and the reinvention of a city

    After a divisive election, this summer’s Games will fire the starting gun on a vast project to transform the French capital

    Stands being erected in a square with a statue of a woman on a winged horse and also at the base of the Eiffel Tower, which bears the symbol of the Olympic rings
  • Friday, 12 July, 2024
    Uefa Men's European championship
    Young wingers give Spanish football a fresh face

    Black stars Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams help steer La Roja to Euro final but racial tensions still dog Spanish game

    Nico Williams and Lamine Yamal together and separately
  • Thursday, 11 July, 2024
    FT MagazineUK Government
    Blair is a model for Starmer’s Labour

    New Labour got lots wrong. But it got more right than most governments

  • Wednesday, 10 July, 2024
    Simon Kuper's EurosMen's Euro 2024
    Dutch players strive to live up to a glorious tradition

    Today’s Oranje have a dearth of quality but can still prosper using the country’s inherited intelligence about the game

    Cody Gakpo, left, Ronald Koeman, centre, Memphis Depay
  • Wednesday, 10 July, 2024
    HTSIThe HTSI adrenaline issue
    Enzo Lefort is a very modern musketeer

    The limitless ambition of the photographer, physiotherapist and Olympic fencer

    Enzo Lefort wears Leon Paul plastron, breeches and socks. Nike Ballestra trainers, Lefort’s own. Throughout: Kitesy Martin Studio necklace, Lefort’s own. Bracelet, Lefort’s own
  • Saturday, 6 July, 2024
    Uefa Men's European championship
    The case for an England victory in the Euros

    Dull passing game has dogged favourites until quarter-finals but easier route leaves them well placed for glory

    Montage including Gareth Southgate, Jude Bellingham and John Stones
  • Thursday, 4 July, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    The Russian media sending truth back home

    Free press seemed doomed after Putin invaded Ukraine but journalists in exile refuse to despair

  • Sunday, 30 June, 2024
    News in-depthUK general election 2024
    Poverty, apathy, despair: the bellwether Midlands seat where the UK election could be decided

    Cost of living crisis dominates concerns for voters in Nuneaton and Walsall

    Keith Kondakor
  • Friday, 28 June, 2024
    Political Fix podcast37 min listen
    Could the election results still surprise us?

    Plus, where have all the ‘good chaps’ of British politics gone?

  • Thursday, 27 June, 2024
    FT MagazineFrench parliamentary election 2024
    I’m bullish about France, but few agree

    The election is the culmination of a gloomy picture that has been 50 years in the making

    A cartoon wolf in a top hat with a red, white and blue feather sticking out of it is eating a bird that is also red, white and blue
  • Tuesday, 25 June, 2024
    FT Globetrotter
    Allez les Jeux! A sporting tour of Paris

    The stories of the historic sites and key venues in the birthplace of the modern Olympics — and many international sports events

    The Aquatics Centre built for the 2024 Olympics, with a tree and gardens in the foreground
  • Friday, 21 June, 2024
    Men's Euro 2024
    Will Les Bleus tackle France’s far right?

    For three decades the French football team has been the instrument for a national debate on race

    A combined image of Kylian Mbappé and Marine Le Pen
  • Thursday, 20 June, 2024
    FT MagazineLife & Arts
    Where the ICC fails, others will prevail

    How the International Criminal Court became relevant

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